Complication

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Lucas's POV:

I watch in horror as she mounts Casper, who is breathing like a dragon. How she is not even the slightest bit nervous to even lead him out of the stall amazes me. But she can handle it, and she knows she can handle it. But today, considering she didn't eat anything yesterday and got limited sleep is having me worry.

She makes eye contact with me and easily smiles like the horse under her isn't a time bomb. I tried to get her to eat something before she got on but the switch of the horses was too fast and she didn't have time. So now I'm praying that Casper doesn't do anything stupid.

But I did not get my wish as Casper spooks out to the side, but Gina stays in the center of the saddle, almost like she was prepared for it. After a handful more spooks Gina finally gets Casper into working mode and now she looks unstoppable. It amazes me how she can make every horse try their hardest.

"Incredible" I hear Scott whisper under his breath. He noticed it too and I smirked at the ground. I was proud of her beyond belief.

Gina leg yields Casper and preforms haunches in and out. Casper tosses his head in frustration when he didn't understand shoulder in. She tried one more time but he threw his head up. So she let him walk on a long rein for five strides. Then picked up her reins again, and tried it at a walk. Then once he figured it out she moved him back up to a trot and did it again. Not perfectly but she moved, making sure not to drill Casper's brain.

After she warmed up Scott lowered the jumps from the 5'5 fences she was just jumping on Casino back down to 3ft.

She trots into the gymnastic with no momentum, forcing her and Casper to work harder getting out of it. Scott coaches her from the sidelines and she comes at it again and makes it through much better.

Scott puts the fences up a whole foot and she comes through he gymnastic again at a canter. After a couple more times going through that they add on another fence about 4'3, then another the same height. I could tell Casper was getting a bit strong as the fences went up but Gina held her ground. Soon she was jumping a whole course with Scott barking out things to her as she flew over a 5 foot triple bar oxer.

I could see the exhaustion in her face as she made a strong half halt to make Casper shorten his stride. It took everything in me to not walk up to Scott and tell him enough. I can't believe that I'm this protective over her. She's like the sister I never wanted but showed up anyway.

I can see how impressed not only Scott is, but Brandon too was. He's the one that saw how much of a disaster Casper was in the beginning and to see him go around now you would think he's a different horse, still crazy, but controlled, for her anyway.

It feels like only minutes later the horses are all loaded up and ready to go back to the show grounds. Brandon hobbles over into the truck along with Gina and I behind him. On the ride back Brandon says, "I'm very proud of you, Gina. You did a great job today and Scott was impressed as well."

"Thank you." I turn around to the back seat and see her blushing. "He told me he has another horse coming up that he wants me to ride in a couple days. At Grand Prix Village. Do you know anything about the horse?"

"He told me about that but just explained the horse to be like the average Grand Prix jumper."

"Yeah that's what he told me. I guess I'm going to have to find out later" she yawns tiredly.

We take care of horses and leave an hour later. I can tell Gina is exhausted, the second she sat down in the backseat of the Audi she sighed and yawned. "Guess I was more tired than I thought." she says with her eyes half closed. The chauffer starts to pull out onto the road. "I'm going to take a nap when we get home." she mumbles.

She didn't make it to the house. Five seconds after she said that she passed out. When the chauffer parked in front of the house Gina was sound asleep so I walked around to the other side and scooped her up. I carried her into the house and laid her in her bed as gently as possible. Once she was all tucked in I started thinking food ideas as my own stomach grumbled as well.

When she stumbled down the stairs two hours later I handed her a plate of chicken cutlets. "Thanks" she smiles and cuts into them. She eats in silence and I can't stand it. How can she be so mute yet I know she has so much on her mind?

She slowly looks up at me, "Uh, do I eat weird or something?"

"What's going on?" I blurt out before I could think first. "Why so quiet?"

"I'm not quiet." She takes another bite of her food then looks at me. We don't break eye contact for a while until finally she gives in, "Okay fine! I had that stupid nightmare just now and I was just thinking about it." She pushes the plate away from herself, "It's not a big deal."

"Okay." I throw my hands up in the air to give up, "If you say so." I wish that I could get what she's really thinking out of her so that I can help her. But unfortunately, that's not going to happen. Justin actually comes into my mind, I knew they were really close but the first time I saw them together  could tell that they had some sort of understanding that I would never have with her. And right now, she needs him. Not that that's going to happen either. She won't even speak his name there's no way she's going to talk one on one with him.

What happened to him anyway? I think to myself. They seemed fine when they first got to the barn but then BAM he started beating the shit out of me. Did he ever do that to her? I shake the thought right away. She would never tolerate that, his ass would've been out of town long before if that was the case.

I look over to her, now walking to the fridge and grabbing a water bottle. He's the only on that's going to be able to get her out of this, whatever it is. I have to fix this for her, if that means that she'll hate me again because of what I'm about to do, I'll do it. If it means seeing her happy in the long run.

"So, tell me about Justin." I say smugly with a smirk.

"What?" she turns around in surprise. "Lucas that's not a topic you can joke on."

"I know. Tell me about him."

"No" she was getting mad now. "Why would I do that?"

This is going to be harder than I thought... I think as she stomps up the stairs and I hear her room door slam shut. "Well I messed up" I say matter in factly. And now she hates both of us.

So what do I do? I call Justin.

And little did I know that we would become best friends.